I’m considering a move to Barcelona this year with my family. When we get there, we’ll want to live in a larger 3-bedroom apartment in a good (read: safe, convenient) area, and send my son to an international school. Of course we’ll have mobile phones, high speed internet, go out to eat 4-5 times a month, travel around Europe and back to the states 2-4 times a year, and still save a respectable amount of money each month.
Can anyone give me any rough ranges of the kind of salary (in Euros/per year) that I’ll need to make to live this lifestyle in Barcelona?
Thanks a lot.
I appreciate the breakdown.
Overall, that’s less than I thought I would need.
Hopefully, I could combine this with guesstimates from others to get a more complete picture.
Yeah, well since I don’t have a family it’s more difficult for me to get an idea. Don’t forget that Barcelona is, still, much cheaper than most major European cities. Except for accommodation / apartments.
I am moving to Barcelona in September and just returned from a 4 day house hunting/international school hunting trip.
My quick comments…
Apartment: 3500 to 4500 euro. Can go lower, can certainly go even higher…obviously depending on how spacious and luxurious you are looking for in your place.
Interesting note - the tenant (aka - you) has to pay an agency fee equal to one months worth of rent. In the states, the owner would pay this, so I was surprised.
-International School: 800? is a good estimate. Though you will have a 3,000 euro one time contribution and a 800 euro annual registration fee. Keep in mind that international schools generally are full by end of May so you may want to be visiting now. We found a number of schools we were interested in had no places.
That’s all I can comment on at this point from personal experience. My company ran a report and stated that general cost of living is about 35% higher than in Philadelphia area (where I am living now)...so that can give you a sense of day to day cost differences for food, auto, etc.
Hmm, interesting info Steve. Indeed Barcelona has much higher rental and real estate costs on average, but having been through the process myself I think there are two echelons of prices: one for visitors and one for the locals (including you after a couple years). The cost of living for myself and many of my friends is probably about 2/3 of what it was back home, whether that’s Pennsylvania, Toronto, London, Portland, Rio di Janiero, etc. Most of us agree that BCN can be an economical place to live.
Then again I’m single, so a lot of my costs are related to beer/wine, cigarettes, dinners out… all of which I find to be much cheaper than Canada, the US or UK. You can still pick up a sandwich for 2.50? but back home it will run you up $5.99 (given that the sandwich quality will be better back home). 35% more expensive than Philly? I don’t see it (except for accommodations, as mentioned).
Maybe the high costs of apartments more than make up for the rest of life being so cheap here.
An American friend of mine had his kids in an International school for a year but then pulled them out and put them in public school due to the costs and “exclusionary” motif.
Thanks for the info. if you don’t mind, I have a couple follow up questions.
Regarding accomodations—you mentioned you were house-hunting. Were you literally looking at houses and not apratments. I ask only because your 3500-4500 seems a lot higher than what I was reading. Also, were you looking through an expat housing service—because I’ve lived abroad before and these kinds of companies usually aim and quote very high.
Also, were you told by your company what your tax liability will be in Spain. I know that US Citizens are US tax emempt up till about 80K. But what about Spanish taxes?
Scottb
I live in Barcelona and over the last 10 years it has become a very expensive place to live! I come from London and when I go back to visit I am shocked at how similar Barcelona has become. The problem is that it?s now a tourist city second to none, the Spanish in general have become very greedy and prices have been hiked out of proportion to local salaries, many locals cannot afford to live in city centre any more - no different to what happened to London decades ago. Property is near London prices when taking into account the very low wages here - most people only take home 1,000 - 1,200 euros a month and work longer hours too. Going out to eat at decent restaurants costs around 30 - 40 euros per head, in UK it would be around 30 pounds, but people earn double there so this means for people relying on Spanish salaries, here it is much much more expensive.
Also, things like computers, tvs, furniture, household items are also more expensive than UK where we have more variety of big stores all competing with each other. Here, most shops, apart from a very few department stores, are family run and they just don?t want to be competitive.
For me, the only noticable cheaper items than UK are council tax (I own my property so have to pay yearly rates) and transport - it?s very true that in UK our train and bus fares are very high. However, long distant trains here are quite expensive too so things are changing there as well.
Salaries are the real problem though. Here in Bcn there are lot of foreign companies who come here because they know they can pay their work force some of the lowest salaries in Europe - it?s a fact that only Portugal and Greece have lower salaries. This is fundamental to one?s take on the cost of living. Of course, if you are lucky enough to move here with considerable wealth and be able to afford private schools and large flats then all the real problems won?t affect you. Like everywhere in the world it depends on your entry level and what the standards you have.
Steve,
Like the Expatriator, I’m curious on what basis you’ve got Philly at 35% below Barcelona. Could it be that there is a misunderstanding based on current exchange rate, which make ?1 worth about 35% more than $1?
ASP
steve d - 02 April 2007 04:22 AM
I am moving to Barcelona in September and just returned from a 4 day house hunting/international school hunting trip.
My quick comments…
Apartment: 3500 to 4500 euro. Can go lower, can certainly go even higher…obviously depending on how spacious and luxurious you are looking for in your place.
Interesting note - the tenant (aka - you) has to pay an agency fee equal to one months worth of rent. In the states, the owner would pay this, so I was surprised.
-International School: 800? is a good estimate. Though you will have a 3,000 euro one time contribution and a 800 euro annual registration fee. Keep in mind that international schools generally are full by end of May so you may want to be visiting now. We found a number of schools we were interested in had no places.
That’s all I can comment on at this point from personal experience. My company ran a report and stated that general cost of living is about 35% higher than in Philadelphia area (where I am living now)...so that can give you a sense of day to day cost differences for food, auto, etc.
We’re living in turbulent times for all major currencies. In historic terms the dollar is weak. But in current terms it is becoming a “safe haven” currency again.
The proof of this contradiction is the relationship to Spain and the Euro. While the US still flounders in recession, the immediate fears in the markets about Greece, Portugal, etc. are pulling down the whole Euro zone. The result is, this morning the Euro hit a 4-year-low against the dollar.
One could argue that in such volatility you can’t be sure when it is best to go. But as of this morning, one could also argue if you’ve ever thought about going to Barcelona at any time in the past 5 years, now would not be a mistake. Please also remember this is only a temporary vacation. If you were to spend a full $3000 on the trip and while away the Euro somehow gained or more likely lost another 5cents against the dollar (a big swing), you would gain or lose on your whole $3000—-only $150, up or down for you.
It is not worth waiting ages for a less volatile market. To miss Barcelona and instead focus on the gain or loss of $150 means you’ve got the tail pulling the dog. There are few absolute certainties in life, but on the whole, it’s a good time to go.
I think that the rates of living there are pretty higher than it could be, I wanted to go there for vacation and I am not aware that how I will go now.
Any big city are not cheap to live in , so do what ,most do and live out the city , used train and buses to get to and from the city .
It’s true, big cities are generally not cheap. Re Barcelona, I can only tell you that the apartment my wife and I had in city center in 2006-7 for 1200 Euros/month can now be rented for 850-900 Euros per month. Other costs have not gone down that much and the Catalans are renowned throughout the country as Spain’s toughest businessmen.
But there is no denying the economy is collapsing—unemployment is near 20% and there must be many vacant apartments and even homes bought in the boom on the Costa Blance by Brits, who would now love to rent them out. As for Barcelona it is easy to go on line and get regular e-mail updates for classified real estate classifed ads for Barcelona properties from two major newspapers—Vanguardia and El Pais. You can customize your search criteria many different ways to only see apartments relevant to you.
